The article examines the role of the subject in the development of culture, the principles and mechanisms of his cultural activity, analyzes the problem of the content of the cultural potential of a student as a subject of culture, substantiates that the basis of intercultural differences is the difference in the methods of meaning formation, construction of semantic configurations. The cultural potential of the subject includes the results of his semantic activity, fixed in a certain sign system, which serve as a condition for the further reproduction and development of culture. Cultural potential is a resource that allows a subject to carry out cultural activities, to ensure the survival and development of both himself and society as a whole.